Beamish beams

Machinery from a bygone age has a bright future as digital technology and a laser scanner help with the restoration effort at Beamish museum.

The North East Productivity Alliance (NEPA) Digital Factory has replicated replacement parts for exhibits at the open air museum, which showcases the north east in the early 1800s and early 1900s.

‘For our work with Beamish we used the new laser scanner - part of the Innovation Resource Centre,’ said Dave Knapton, NEPA Digital Factory lead consultant. ‘It maps objects exactly and creates a virtual 3D part straight onto a computer, which can then be used on Computer Aided Design Systems to manufacture replica parts. This also allows any broken parts to be fixed by providing the exact measurements.’

Damaged parts, including a steam injector from a 1877 Lewin locomotive, a handrail from a tram and a cart hub wheel from the Victorian period, were given to the Digital Factory team at Sunderland University to replicate.